Organic solar cells (OSCs) are expected to attain a satisfactory power conversion efficiency (PCE) and acceptable production cost to guarantee strong competitiveness. However, state-of-the-art PCEs are all achieved by polymer donors with halogen atom-based active layers, which leaves room for researchers to develop efficient systems without the currently widely used halogenated polymer donors. Here, we combined a recent well-known nonfullerene acceptor (NFA) Y6 with our previously proposed donor PBDTNS-BDD (possessing no halogen atoms) and successfully acquired a moderate PCE of 12.55%. By utilizing a classic ternary strategy of introducing a fullerene acceptor PC 71 BM into the blend, the PCE of the device is significantly increased to 14.88%, close to the 15% milestone. The improvement in the device performance due to PC 71 BM is attributed to the fact the improved blend morphology (molecular packing and domain size) enables suppressed exciton recombination and more efficient and balanced charge transport. Our work extends the applicable range of the classic ternary design of adding fullerene into an efficient NFA-based binary system, e.g., non-halogenated polymer:Y6 combination, to achieve a nearly 15% efficiency for its ternary device, providing new directions for applications of OSCs.
Traditional
additives like 1,8-diiodooctane and 1-chloronaphthalene
were successfully utilized morphology optimization of various polymer
solar cells (PSCs) in an active layer, but their toxicity brought
by halogen atoms limits their corresponding large-scale manufacturing.
Herein, a new nontoxic halogen-free additive named benzyl benzoate
(BB) was introduced into the classic PSCs (PTB7-Th:PC71BM), and an optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.43% was
realized, while there was a poor PCE for additive free devices (4.83%).
It was shown that BB additives could inhibit PC71BM’s
overaggregation, which increased the interface contact area and formed
a better penetration path of an active layer. In addition, BB additives
could not only boost the distribution of a PTB7-Th donor at the surface,
beneficial to suppressing exciton recombination in inverted devices
but also boost the crystallinity of a blend layer, which is conducive
to exciton dissociation and charge transport. Our work effectively
improved a device performance by using a halogen-free additive, which
can be referential for industrialization.
A ternary
strategy of halogen-free solvent processing can open
up a promising pathway for the preparation of polymer solar cells
(PSCs) on a large scale and can effectively improve the power conversion
efficiency with an appropriate third component. Herein, the green
solvent o-xylene (o-XY) is used
as the main solvent, and the non-fullerene acceptor Y6-DT-4F as the
third component is introduced into the PBB-F:IT-4F binary system to
broaden the spectral absorption and optimize the morphology to achieve
efficient PSCs. The third component, Y6-DT-4F, is compatible with
IT-4F and can form an “alloy acceptor”, which can synergistically
optimize the photon capture, carrier transport, and collection capabilities
of the ternary device. Meanwhile, Y6-DT-4F has strong crystallinity,
so when introduced into the binary system as the third component can
enhance the crystallization, which is conducive to the charge transport.
Consequently, the optimal ternary system based on PBB-F:IT-4F:Y6-DT-4F
achieved an efficiency of 15.24%, which is higher than that of the
binary device based on PBB-F:IT-4F (13.39%).
A new alcohol‐soluble polymer PFN‐ID is successfully synthesized by combining N,N‐di(2‐ethylhexyl)‐6,6′‐dibromoisoindigo and an amino‐containing fluorene subunits, and applied to polymer solar cells (PSCs) with PTB7‐Th:PC71BM as an active layer. The n‐type backbone of the PFN‐ID improves electron transfer performance and thus optimizes device performance. The PSCs with PFN‐ID as cathode interfacial layers (CILs) have significantly improved compared to the device without the interface layer, especially the optimum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs reaches up to 9.24%, which is 1.62 times higher than that of devices without CILs. The I–V curves show that the introduction of the n‐type backbone leads to a significant increase in the conductivity of PFN‐ID compared to PFN. The UV photoelectron spectroscopy and Mott–Schottky curves further confirm that PFN‐ID can decrease the work function of Al electrode, and increase its built‐in potential, giving higher open‐circuit voltage. The resulting conventional PSCs using PFN‐ID as cathode interlayer achieve high photovoltaic performance, and the research results can provide a new strategy for the advancement of PSCs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.